


Would you leave a Prince to be treated like a King?

by Robyn2411



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders Are Twins, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders Angst, Graphic Description, Mild Language, Missing in Action, The Split tm, mentions of throwing up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:47:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24117478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Robyn2411/pseuds/Robyn2411
Summary: Roman’s gone missing.Patton feels bad for not realising.Logan is having flashbacks.Virgil is freaking out.Janus is not helping.And Remus is having a nice bowl of spaghetti.In a quest to find Roman, Logan meets a new side who agrees to help in the search.However, with this new side around, do they really need Roman back?
Comments: 28
Kudos: 51





	1. Prologue

Roman was gone.  
Only a few hours ago he had been downstairs reading The Lightning Thief for the seventh time but had strolled up to his room complaining of tiredness. No one had said anything, it had been a long week and it was already past eleven at night. So they let the passionate facet leave.  
Now they wished they hadn’t.  
Patton had gone to bed within the next hour with Virgil trailing behind only a few minutes later.  
Logan had stayed awake to finish his book when he heard a thud from upstairs. Now, Logan isn’t the type to worry, but he knew Virgil’s nightmares could get out of hand and he didn’t want him to get hurt. So, slowly ascending the stairs, Logan instantly knew something was wrong. Logan wasn’t anything if he was not observant.  
From the small cracks on the floor boards adjacent to Roman’s door, to the faded tones bleeding through the usually vibrant red. Something was off.  
This was only enhanced when he found Virgil curled up sleeping soundly in his bed.  
“...Virgil....” Logan wouldn’t normally wake Virgil up if he wasn’t having a nightmare, but he needed someone else with him just in case something went wrong. He had learnt that from last time something happened to Creativity.  
~~~  
“Phillip?” Curiosity truly lived up to his name sake. Despite the fact that Creativity had stormed out of the common area not long ago, Curiosity could help but try to find the flamboyant one. He knocked on the rainbow painted door, reminiscing on the day they had painting it together. He ended up with blue paint matting his hair together and a trail of green across his face and over his glasses- but he didn’t care. “Phillip, please let me in...”  
“Go away Lolly.” The voice came from inside the room, Curiosity knew that. But it sounded both distant and far away, inside his head and out, drawn out and snappy. It was as if two voices were fighting each other to escape the traits mouth.  
“But Pip—” Curiosity cut himself off as he heard a loud bang from the other side of the door. “Pip, are you alright?” He waited for a response that didn’t come, “I’m coming in.”  
There was no reaction, no call for him to stop, no cry for him to please help.  
Curiosity sunk into the room to be greeted with a monster.  
It had four eyes and a manic grin and seemed to be trying to rip itself open down the middle. Its neck snapped with movement and its feet didn’t look like they should be moving at all. Curiosity sank back out as quickly as possible.  
For the next few days, Curiosity came back to the door and sat down near the wall opposite to eat his lunch. The hallways were small and narrow as Thomas’ mind had not expanded much at all yet so Logan could nearly rest his feet against the opposing wall.  
He heard crying and screaming and hissing and smashing through the gap between the door and its frame but it would soon quiet down when Curiosity started humming random songs that Creativity had sung once. He knew that that..... thing was not his old best friend anymore— but that didn’t mean he wanted the thing to suffer. That’s what the other sides had ended up lovingly naming it: the thing. It seemed fitting.  
Eventually after fifteen days and nights Curiosity sat up in bed as he heard feet hitting the flooring outside his room. Making his way to his door, the steps grew louder but nothing more than if a toddler was walking down the corridor. As his door creaked open, Curiosity poked his head out of it, eyes ballooning when he saw the rainbow door wide open, almost inviting. His eyes searched up and down the hall, looking for Phillip only to land on a small figure huddled in the corner.  
Quietly, Curiosity approached the- what turned out to be figures- and knelt down to look at them properly. A pair of green eyes looked at him, followed by a reddish-brown pair. But at least now the four eyes of the monster he had seen belonged to two separate heads instead of being crammed onto one.  
“.....hello.” The green eyed one held up a little hand and waved, sticking his tongue out as if that small action took all of his attention to do.  
“Hello.” Curiosity stared at the small bundles with his mouth hanging open.  
The brown eyed one reached his hand out and grabbed Curiosity’s jaw and, with more forced than he was expecting, pushed it up to close his mouth. “You look weird. I’m Remus.” He said, barely pausing between the sentences and speaking with the bluntest tone Curiosity has ever heard.  
“....I’m Logan, but you can call me Lolly if you’d like.” 

Logan of today denies ever saying this or liking the nickname in anyway. 

“I’m Roman. I don’t think you look weird.” The green eyes smiled along with a toothy grin below them showing a significant gap between the two front teeth, a trait he seemed to share with Remus. Looking at these two adorable little children - Logan swore to protect them.  
So then, why twenty years later is one of them a complete mess and the other Remus Sanders?


	2. Chapter 1

“...What?” Virgil was not pleased to have been woken up, but when he saw Logan above him of all people he knew something was up. “What happened?”  
“I believe something may be wrong with Roman’s room.”  
“Okay give me two seconds and I’ll be out.”   
Logan made his way back into the corridor, his worries only added to when he sees the usually bright red, stained wood of Roman’s door looking more of a muted pink in the low light. Unfortunately, this colour did not change when Logan flipped the light switch on -even Virgil’s door was more vibrant now.   
“Jesus Christ on a bike...” Looking over to the anxious trait, Logan saw Virgil wide-eyed and shocked, his stare going straight past him and to the door. “I can see what you mean.”  
“I believe our best action to take would be to knock first and request entrance and, if we don’t receive confirmation, sink into the room. However, as you well know after last time, be ready to depart if necessary.”  
“You don’t think he’s split again, do you?”   
“I’m only thinking of worst case scenario. We must think of the positive for now until we have more information.”   
Logan rapped his knuckles on the off-coloured door, feeling a wave of nostalgia and dread looming over him. Perhaps Roman was just redecorating and... for some reason... believed that muted, fleshy pink was an appropriate choice for his door colour. Logan was doubtful.  
“Roman? May I request for myself and Virgil to enter your room consentfully?”  
“Is that a word?”   
“Shhh... Roman if we do not receive an answer with the next ten seconds we may be forced to enter without your permission.”   
One...  
Two...  
Three...  
Four...  
Five...  
Six..  
Seven...  
Eight...  
Nine...  
Ten.  
“We are coming in.”  
When the two more rational sides entered the room they were surprised to find no monster or very upset Roman but... nothing.  
They had both been the Creativity’s room before- it was where they had weekly movie marathons. Usually there would be fairy lights hanging from every wall and the ceiling, cushions and blankets scattered across the floor along with carpets and several half-way finished drawings and fabric from dresses and accessories of all shapes and sizes (High five if you get that reference). Now? You could see the hardwood floor and the desk in the corner was semi-organised. The lights were all off with the room only being illuminated by light coming through the window to the imagination. If anyone else were to enter the room, they’d assume everything was fine, but Logan and Virgil knew the Roman was physically incapable of tidying up after himself. Something was wrong.   
“Dibs not telling Patton.” They both said at the same time.”   
It wasn’t that neither side wanted to leave Patton out of something happening in the mind scape, it’s just they both knew he’d be devastated that something had happened.   
They decided to look around first, tell Patron later.   
Roman wasn’t in the imagination- that much was certain. If he were his room would be missing completely and replaced by open fields or a bustling town.   
Roman wasn’t in the house they had in the mind scape.  
He wasn’t in memories or wishes.  
Thomas was still asleep so he hadn’t been summoned.  
And when they finally tried to tell Patton, he wasn’t in Morality’s room either.   
Patton cried. Because of course he did. He’s Patton.   
He also double checked all of the places the others had already checked just incase. But Roman has seemingly vanished.   
But there was one place where he could be...  
A place that none of the three had been in years...  
A place that Logan knew he’d be the only one going because the others had already jumped ship.  
The dark side. 

Logan wasn’t entirely sure why Roman would be there. He hated the place just as much as Patton and Virgil as far as anyone knew. But it was the last area of Thomas’s mind to check.   
A long corridor stretched through where the front door should be if the house were real and Logan walked down it for what seemed like an hour with the same pattern repeating on the walls over and over again, the slightest bit darker with every repetition until the mostly white walls were a deep black. That was until Logan opened the door on the other side to reveal a out of place brightness coming from the inside.   
When Logan entered he found what appeared to be a city reminiscent of Tokyo or some sort of futuristic world with neon lights and an open sky with thousands of stars embedded into it. Which let’s be honest caught most of Logan’s attention because he’s a big star nerd.   
There were a few people milling around but Logan knew that they were only as sentient as Roman’s villagers in the imagination. Although whereas Roman’s creations were smily and walked with a skip in their step, these people were all some sort of disfigured and were frowning with the deepest upset Logan had ever seen anyone display. So they were Remus’s, basically.  
Although one person in particular stuck out like a sore thumb.   
Along with everyone else he was dressed in greys and lacked colour all together even in his skin tone. However a small smile shone on his face and that emotion crept up to his eyes as well. He was wearing an over sized grey jumper with a white collar and cuffs, black jeans with grey socks and converse. He had a black hat and backpack with ear phones running down to somewhere inside the bag. From his appearance he almost blended in with the crowd, even the missing eye that was replaced by a vicious looking scar didn’t look out of place.   
But, when Logan really looked at him, he noticed that the man didn’t look as blurry as all the imaginary people did. He seemed to be admiring the landscape just as much as Logan was. Was this a side?  
If it was, Logan wouldn’t know them. Which was odd. Although he wouldn’t put it past Janus to hide a new side from him. The only way to know would be to ask.  
Logan made his way through the crowds, towards the grey man but just as he got within a few feet, the possible side caught eye lines with Logan and took off running (he be practicing social distancing just like you should be doing).


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just so you know, in this story the sides don’t all look like Thomas. They look like different people.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *advertisement voice*  
> Do you like fluff?!  
> Do you like hurt/comfort?!  
> Do you like family fics for the soul?!  
> If any of these apply to you, I have the perfect fic for you!  
> My new fic “I already feel found” has just gone up so if you like my writing, I hope you’ll like that as well! :)

“Wait!” Logan took off after the grey side, running to catch up the few feet that he had over him. “Wait I’m...” Logan hated doing this. As Logic he was quite high ranking in terms of sides, technically he can order lower sides around. If this side is new he could- “ I’m Logic Sanders and I demand you to stop.”  
The assailant dug his feet into the floor, cursing under his breath and halting in his tracks.  
“I’m sorry, I don’t normally do this but I needed to talk to you.”  
The grey side turned around, his eye showing no emotion as he stared at Logan. “It’s okay. I didn’t realise I was in such high esteem. My apologies... your highness.” The side bowed at his middle, drawling sarcastically.  
“Am I allowed to ask your name?” Logan tentatively asked.  
“I don’t think I have much of a choice...”  
“Of course you do, if you’re not comfortable with sharing that informatio-”  
“I’m just pulling your leg. Have been this entire time. I’m Indulgence.” The side broke out laughing, completely dropping the stoic demeanour and smiling a bright grin at Logan.  
“Logic. But everyone calls me Logan.” Logan extended his hand out shocked to see his gesture actually returned in a handshake.  
“What’s a light side like you doing in DeadTown?” Indulgence took his earphones out and shoved them into his pocket shaking his hair out.  
“I’m sorry... DeadTown?” Logan said.  
“Yeah, what? You didn’t mean to come here? Of course you didn’t. No one means to come to DeadTown. So where were you heading?” Indulgence scratched the back of his neck.  
“One of my friends is missing, I was trying to head to the Dark Side to check for him there.”  
“Well, you weren’t far off. The dark sides like to visit here a lot. So they made a quick way in. Remus made us a few friends to keep us company.” He gestured around to the forlorn company they kept.  
“Where is the Dark Side then?”  
“I’ll take you there. I can’t believe it! Me, the one with only one eye and no depth perception is showing Logic around. Ha!” Indulgence pointed to his scar but seemingly held no resentment towards whatever had happened to him, almost like it was joke.  
“Is this some sort of joke to you? One of the main sides is missing from the mind scape, could we please have some more urgency?”  
“Of course, right this way my liege.” Indulgence waves Logan towards him and started heading down the street, Logic trailing not far behind. “So who ran off?”  
“Creativity, and he didn’t run off. He’s just missing -we don’t know why or how yet.”  
“Remus’s snotty younger brother?”  
“I suppose that would be how Remus would describe Roman yes.”  
“Well, if I were you I would be hoping Roman isn’t in the Dark Side.”  
“What do you mean? Do you think they would hurt him?”  
“Quite the opposite. The Dark Side is off the chain, so if we find your ‘friend’ and he’s having too good a time to leave, don’t go crying about it to me.”  
“What? Why wouldn’t Roman want to come home?”  
Indulgence just shrugged and carried on walking. A few minutes of quite buzzing from the neon signs later and Indulgence started looking back at Logan every now and then, chuckling to himself.  
“What’s so funny?”  
“Oh nothing. It’s just funny to me how much faith you still have. I thought the others were joking when they said you guys were so self righteous.”  
“What’s that supposed to mean?”  
“You’re just so sure of what’s gonna happen all the time. You are gonna find Roman, he is gonna come back.”  
“What makes you so sure that we won’t? And if you’re so confident we aren’t then why are you helping me?” Logan stopped where he was, causing the grey side to stop with him.  
“I never said that. Surprisingly I want to help Thomas, don’t we all? But sometimes you have to be realistic. I don’t know why I’m the one telling you this, you’re literally Logic.”  
“That doesn’t mean I always see straight. I’m sorry for reacting that way, I shouldn’t have questioned your intentions.”  
“It’s fine. I’m used to it.”  
“What do you mean?”  
“...well with a name like Indulgence people don’t exactly take you as a trustworthy person. The light sides think I’m a dark side, the dark sides think I’m a light side. It gets confusing.”  
“Well you don’t seem like a Dark Side to me. I just think people are put off by the name. One of my other friends had the same problem.”  
“Anxiety?” Indulgence turned around and walked backwards so he could continuously talk to Logan.  
“Yes... how did you know?”  
“Well, I wasn’t around at the time, but I know all about the story of Anxiety.”  
“Virgil. His name is Virgil.” Indulgence looked around and nodded.  
“... I like it.”  
“He’d be glad to hear that. Him sharing his name was a big step in seeing himself in a new light and being able to move forward. Have you ever put any thought into your own name?”  
“I don’t think I’ve had the time.”  
“Really? When were you created?”  
“How rude... you mustn’t ask someone that!”  
“I’m going to assume this is another one of your jokes.”  
“Yeah, I only formed a year or so ago. Yep, I’m basically a child compared to you.”  
“Well I wouldn’t say that, when I was so young I certainly didn’t act like you.”  
“Really? Then what did you act like?”  
~~~  
“Lolly! Lolly! Look at what I made!” Phillip ran into the living room, dripping in paint- or at least what Logan hoped was paint- and held up a long piece of fabric with all the colours Logan could name, which for someone with the mind of a four year old was quite a few.  
“What is it?” He really couldn’t tell.  
“It’s a tie!” Pip held it even closer to Logan’s face.  
“It is?” It didn’t look like one.  
“Yeah!” But he was so sure of himself.  
“Cool.” Logan nodded.  
“Can I put it on you?” Pip climbed onto the sofa with Logan, not waiting for an answer before rapping the fabric around his best friend’s neck and started tying it.  
You see, Pip doesn’t know how to tie a tie. So by the end there was a very colourful, probably still wet, strip of fabric tied in several knots around Curiosity’s neck. And he loved it.  
Not because it looked amazing or because it was expensive but because it was made by his best friend in the entire world!  
When Pip has finished his masterpiece Logan yanked him down into a hug, rough housing with the other child until they became tired and eventually settled down onto the sofa to watch Sherlock Holmes.


	4. Chapter 3

“Welcome to the Dark Side of the mind!” Indulgence stepped to the side to reveal a grand entrance into the Dark-side common room. It was what Logan had expected, dark, dusty and all around broken and backwards. The stairs going up to the bedrooms were crooked and the sofa was upturned. Why would Indulgence think this was “off the chain”?  
“Hey nerd.” Remus was lounging on the kitchen counter, head very near to the oven although he looked none the wiser to this.   
“Hello Remus. Have you by any chance seen your brother recently.” Logan said.  
Remus looked very confused, which Logan assumes meant he didn’t know his brother was missing, but after a short paused of Remus staring past Logan he just said, “...no...?” Which confused Logan, Remus had never sounded so unsure about anything in his life. Although, soon after the word left his mouth he seemed to perk up, throwing himself off of the counter to then pour blood on himself and leave the room, which left no doubt in Logan’s mind that Remus was doing fine.  
“I’ll go and ask Janus, you stay here and look around for Princey.” Indulgence went up the stair so Deceit’s room leaving Logan by himself in the Dark-side’s kitchen. He wandered through the to the living room and searched it, only stopping when he heard whispered shouting coming from upstairs. He could make out what they were saying or who was saying it, but being on the Dark-side he knew it could be anyone. From what he had heard from Janus, they were constantly fighting over here, although Logan wondered why they were at least trying to keep quiet. After a short while the fighting stopped and Indulgence came back down the stairs.   
“Janus says he cares so much about finding Roman right now and invited you to stay as long as you like.”   
“Which mean he doesn’t care at all about finding Roman and wants me to leave, right?”  
“Yep. We should probably go.”   
“But what if Roman is here?”  
“... do you think you could get back home by yourself?”  
“I could try going to the real world and sinking back down into my room.”  
“Okay... you do that. I’ll stay here and look.”  
“Thank you Indulgence.” Logan sunk into the real world, greeting Thomas and sinking back out into his room. Logan never realised how bright it was in the Light Side of the mind. Logan walked back into the common room to be bombarded by a very worried Virgil and Patton.  
“Oh my god Logan, did you find him?” Patton said.  
“IS THAT BLOOD?!” Virgil all but shrieked.  
“No, but more on that in a second and yes but it’s not mine don’t worry, Remus poured blood on himself and a little bit splashed onto me.”   
“What do you mean you didn’t find him?” Virgil asked.  
“I searched the dark side of Thomas’s mind but got kicked out by Janus. However I enlisted the help of a Grey side to look for him for us.” Logan said.  
“A grey side?” Patton said.  
“Yes. Apparently there’s an entire sub-genre of side that Janus has kept from us.”  
“So, what side are they?” Virgil asked.  
“Indulgence.”  
“Indulgence? You can seriously trust a side called Indulgence to help us!” Virgil said.  
“Actually I can. They were the one who showed me to the Dark-Side in the first place as it has changed positions since the last time any of us went there. So yes, I do trust them and I’m sure you would too if you talked to them. Also, as I have already been kicked out of the dark side of the mind and neither of you two want to go they are our only hope of getting Roman back, if he is there. We will just have to wait until Indulgence arrives with his verdict.”   
~~~  
The three remaining Light-Sides waited for around and hour in the living room, watching mindless television until they heard a knock on the door to the hallway that Logan had walked down a few hours before. Logan got up and opened the door to find Indulgence on the other side of it, a very see-through Roman in his arms.   
“I found him just inside the subconscious. He had already started fading when I got there.”   
“Sh!t.” Logan gathered the fading prince in his arms and raced him over to the sofa, placing him down gently as soon as Patton and Virgil shot up. Indulgence stayed by the sidelines, not helping or hindering the process. Virgil ran to go and get something Roman had created but his room was so bare, he could find anything. Patton tried to comfort the fading side as Logan did anything he could to stop the Prince from fading.   
A few minutes of silence passed and Roman was only getting worse no matter what Logan tried to do to remedy the situation. A few more minutes and Logan knew there was nothing he could do. Another few minutes... and Roman had completely seized to exist.


	5. Chapter 4

“Wait so you want me to stay here?” Indulgence sat across from the three most present sides in Thomas’s life, looking washed out and dull surrounded by the rainbow of colours that made up their living room. It had been four days since Roman had gone missing, three since he had faded. Indulgence, or as Patton had started calling him ‘Indee’, had stayed over on the sofa to Make sure that the light sides didn’t do anything too extreme in the aftermath of their loss, he definitely had expected to be offered a permanent place there. They even let him stay in.. that.. room. No one else was going to use it. 

Indee did marvel at the room, it was organised and aesthetically pleasing to him but he did notice the jolt of pain that the others had whenever they saw it. The little pencils, perfectly sharpened and placed in neat rows with tiny little doodles in pen going up the grips gave him joy even if it caused the others to suffer at how Roman had most likely been the one to draw on them. He knew that the others only wanted him here to fill the hole that Roman left and as soon as they get over the initial shock or Indulgence showed the less than favourable part of his job he would be thrown out and this room would be left as a tribute to the original owner. However, Indee was going to make the most out of his stay... he was going to indulge in it if you will. 

That’s why he couldn’t stay. He was too selfish. Sure he wasn’t the worst of the worst, but that little incline to do what he wanted and not care for anyone else’s opinion was always there. Blame him for not being perfect, everyone else did...

So, because he was selfish, he wanted to stay there. Sue him. 

Skip forward a few months and... he was still there. The others quite obviously hadn’t let go of Roman yet, but the sad smiles and strange looks they initially gave him were few and far between. Thomas had been told about the whole... thing. He was devastated but didn’t feel any differently creative-wise, which was weird. He had yet to tell the fans, knowing they would take it hard. Those Roman stans were loyal creatures and most of the fandom as a whole seemed to like Ro at least. God knows how they’d react if the news happened too abruptly.  
———  
Logan had been trying to come up with a video idea to settle the fans into the news about Roman but, rather ironically, it was extremely hard to do without Roman there. Normally they’d bounce ideas back and forth, Roman slowly making them more fun and Logan making them more efficient until they got a good middle ground to work off of. Without the creative side there, Logan hadn’t t gotten past a five minute power point on the events on the night and how they would proceed from that point on. He had his doubt that the fans would be happy with that. 

Any story based ideas seemed impersonal and they would need Roman there to do them. The closest they could get would be Remus, but frankly, Logan trusted him as far as he could throw him, which wasn’t very far. 

Logan pressed his palms into his eye sockets after taking his glasses off for the fifteenth time that day to relive the strain of looking at a blank piece of paper for hours. Finally he got up, deeming his attempts a failure and went into the kitchen to grab something to eat. In there he found Indulgence scooping a massive spoon of lemon sorbet into his mouth out of a tub that Logan was sure was brand new but now was close to empty. He had noticed that Indee did this sometimes, with many foods, mostly in the dead of night. Only then did Logan realise it was the dead of night. 

As soon as Indee noticed Logan walking down the stairs, looking like a zombie that had half its brains blown out, he threw the spoon and now empty tub into the sink and walked over to him, guiding him to the sofa and pulling a bowl of cereal out of seemingly nowhere. This was another thing Indulgence had done on more than one occasion, so Logan didn't question it. Indee pulled the blanket from the back of he sofa down over Logic and sat back, waiting for Logan to finish the bowl.  
“You’re really bad at self-care.” Indee said after he came back from scurrying into the kitchen to put Logan’s bowl in the sink. 

“And you’re very good at it?” 

“Better than you.”

“Says the one who just downed an entire sorbet tub.”

“One of the perks of being Indulgence I guess. I can eat until most people would explode.”

“I don’t think that’s possible.”

“Maybe no one’s been brave enough to find out.”

“Maybe”

This conversation struck something in the Logical trait. It would have been something he would have talked about with Pip or the twins when they were little. They would have gone from talking about sorbet to people exploding.

“God knows Thomas needs more self-care in his life.” Logan said, trying to bring the conversation back to stop himself thinking of any form of creativity. As he did a bright light came from the side where Indee was, now however...

The same person stared back at him, that much was certain however it was like Indee had been coloured in. Coloured in with Roman’s colours. 

Logan knew more about grey sides now, from what Indee had told him. He knew they usually didn’t stay the same trait for long as to accommodate Thomas’s ever changing view on the world. He also knew that main sides, due to their power, could affect changes. Logan drew back from the side as he realised, he had caused Indee to change. Well, maybe not just him. All three of the light sides had been thinking about Roman a whole lot, it was only a matter of time until Indee was affected by it.  
He hadn’t changed to creativity though. If he had, he would’ve looked identical to Roman, which he didn’t. 

This ‘new’ side wore a long red and white striped shirt that hung loose over light blue, acid-washed jeans. Over the top of that was a hoodie with a red paw print on the front and short sleeves. The hood itself was massive compared the the head that wore it and it had what only could be described as dog ears sewn onto it. The jeans were rolled up to knee haughty to show ballet shoes wrapped delicately around the side’s lower legs, they looked worn in and used despite being brand new. There were knitted bracelets and small gold bands around his wrists and over his head was gold-brown hair that was long enough to reach his ears. Green eyes stared back at him, previously a lifeless grey, now shiny and bright. Replacing the dark, beaten backpack was a new, home made looking bag with a water bottle sticking out of one side and earbuds out the other. Where there had previously been a scorched, painful looking gash over his right eye, was now a completely healed scar that didn’t even look irritated or tender anymore.

So Logan had changed something other than his appearance. Before him was no longer Indulgence.

It was Self-Care.

“Hi. I’m Aaron.”


	6. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where in the world is Roman Sanders?

“Roman? What happened...?” Everything was blurry and his head hurt and everything was too bright and he could breathe and- and-

“Roman?” Who was that? They were loud. He knew that. 

“Roman I need you to answer me.” He tasted blood and- he wanted to throw up. Where was he?

“Ro? Come on you need to wake up for me.” Go away. He felt like crying. As if he had been ripped into two. He couldn’t remember what had happened. What had happened? What had happened- what had happened- what had-

“Please...” the voice sounded desperate, “Ro, wake up. I can’t be an annoying brother if you’re not there to be annoyed.” 

...

...

... Remus?

______

Aaron shot awake, dripping with sweat and tears clawing their way out of his eyes. He felt the bed under him shake, only to realise it was him doing the shaking. 

Running to the bathroom to upheave his stomach, he caught a glance in the mirror. His eyes were puffy and red and his skin pale and clamy. He sat with his head hung over the sink, water from the tap cascading down his hair. 

Every night since Roman had ‘faded’ Aaron had had the same dream. When Patton has once found him in the middle of one he had passed it off as guilt... he had been the one to find Roman, right? 

Aaron knew it was much worse. 

Seeing the mourning and misery sketched on their faces made it too much to bare. 

He couldn’t tell them now... it was too late... 

But maybe he can tell you. 

______ 

*two months earlier, the day Roman went missing.*

“Hey Lo, whatchadoooooin’” Roman leaned over the back of the desk chair Logan had been sat on for the last few hours. 

“I am sorting through your ideas from last night. I do appreciate the... amount of detail in them. However perhaps in the future it would benefit all parties for a summary. Then we could go over the chosen few in more detail at a later date?” Logan truly did appreciate the time and effort Roman took to create ideas, really. It’s just spending hours slumped over his desk, after hypocritically telling Virgil off for doing the same thing, wasn’t what Logan wanted to be doing all the time.

“Okay Calulatron. You’re the boss.” Roman smiled before heading out into the kitchen, noticing Patton sitting at the table seemingly knitting a scarf. “What’s that you got there Padre?”

“I’m making a scarf for Virgil, you know how cold he gets in winter.” Patton responded.

“I certainly do, although I didn’t mind the random koala moments he had.” Roman said.

“Neither do I but he said it would make him feel more comfortable.” Patton said. 

Roman strolled into the living room when suddenly a dizzy wave came over him. Not thinking much of it, he sat himself down to calm the waves before reaching for a book he had laid out earlier on the coffee table. The dizziness soon passed and he got on with reading his book, barely noticing the rest of the sides sitting down in their respective places. 

They sat like that for a few hours as the sun went down, mindless television playing in the background as they talked and read their book respectively.

Quite early for him, Roman went up to bed as the waves of nausea returned and his vision went blurry. By the time he reached the top of the stairs he was ready to fall over, unable to call out to the others as his vocal cords stopped responding. 

He rested his head on the banister, hoping to calm the ringing in his head and regain control of his voice to no avail. The little vision he had was ripped away from him and by the time he came too it wasn’t much lighter than the pitch black he had been stuck in before. He was on his feet still, alone but in a dark hallway, similar to the one he had been trying to reach before but broken and eerie. 

Roman could feel himself being called by some unseen force to keep moving when he turned a bend to see his look alike standing there in a similar amount of unease that Roman assumes he had himself. 

Remus looked even more ill than usual, red eyes piercing into green as they stood in a dead lock. It was almost like a shoot out, they both knew what they were being compelled to but neither wanted to make the first move. Still, a little voice in the back of their mind persisted. ...do it... Do it... DO IT... DO IT!

Roman reaches his hand out and, as if he were standing in a mirror, Remus replied with an identical gesture. 

The moment their fingers touched the glass of the invisible mirror a bright light shone into the back of Roman’s eyes: near blinding him. An echo of his own scream came from his twin and the two fell to the floor synchronised, unable to let go of the other. 

And within seconds, neither twin existed. 

“Roman? What happened...?” Everything was blurry and his head hurt and everything was too bright and he could breathe and- and-

“Roman?” Who was that? They were loud. He knew that. 

“Roman I need you to answer me.” He tasted blood and- he wanted to throw up. Where was he?

“Ro? Come on you need to wake up for me.” Go away. He felt like crying. As if he had been ripped into two. He couldn’t remember what had happened. What had happened? What had happened- what had happened- what had-

“Please...” the voice sounded desperate, “Ro, wake up. I can’t be an annoying brother if you’re not there to be annoyed.” 

...

...

... ”Remus?“

”No... I don’t think so...” 

“What happened?” 

“I don’t know.”

“If you aren’t Remus then who are you?” 

“Ata. Who are you?” 

He certainly didn’t feel like either twin, although distant memories disagreed. This... Ata still seemed like family. 

“Aaron.”


	7. Chapter 6

Ata and Aaron’s heads were swimming for what seemed like hours before the chiming in their ears settles to dull thuds every now and then- foggy and light in the distance. They held onto each other, recalling memories they didn’t feel fully theirs. Tales of princes and monsters, a wizard with big square glasses who was there to protect them. But as the pain increased, both facets knew that the wizard was no longer there to save them.

Leaning on each other, the pair managed to raise to their feet in tandem, stumbling before regaining their sense of balance. One step at a time they walked in the easiest direction: down. The end of the corridor opened up to see a figure sitting with his back facing them, looking down at a snake wrapped around himself and petting it. He seemed familiar.

“Remus, what did we say about kidnapping your brothe-“ the man cut himself off as one of his eyes met that of the new set of twins, immediately sensing something to be off, “Who in the world are you?” 

“We don’t know.” 

————

“So let me get things as straight as we can while being in Thomas’s mind.” Janus said, having sat the twins down on the kitchen counter, and gotten himself a glass of wine to dramatically nurse, “You two are not the Prince twins. But you’re not not them either.” 

Ata and Aaron could only nod. 

“Why does my job never get easy?” Janus took a massive sigh, rocking his head back and squeezing his eyes shut. “The light sides are going to flip their sh!t.” 

The twins shared a look of helplessness, unable to give the clearly distressed man in front of them and more information, they were just born

“Alright, I’m not Logic so bear with me. From what information I can gather- I think that the twins- the first set. God this is going to be confusing. The prince twins were aiming to consciously or unconsciously fuse back into Phillip. However, Thomas’s mind would no longer benefit from that and so instead...” Janus glanced up to the young sides before him, “you two were made. For some reason.” 

A silence hung in the air as a thread that threatened to strangle them in its intensity. 

“Who’s Phillip?” Ata piped up. 

“That... is a very long story that I am not going into. Instead, we need a plan.” Janus summoned a piece of paper and a pen that the twins leaned over to see him writing on, “By now the light sides are going to have noticed Roman’s disappearance. They’ll check the light side first giving up around half an hour, perhaps an hour if they’re careless, to do something. I’ll make the gateway to here as long as I can, giving up another hour.” 

Janus scribbled his markings down.

“You two were creativity once, that should still be there. What should we do then?” Janus looked crazed, though he still gripped his wine in his off-hand. 

“What are we doing?” Fairs to say Aaron was confused.

“We’re hiding you two from the light sides.”

“...why?”

“Because they will go insane if they know that the Prince twins tried to fuse and who will be first on their blame list? Me.” 

“Okay... well what if we just... pretend to be the Prince twins?” Ata asked.

“I don’t have enough time to train you to be masters of deceit. Star boy and Wonder nerd are bound to sus you out. Jesus the twins really are gone. I’m the one doing the whole nick name thing.”

“Well... what if one of us hides in plane sight? As a new side. Then we can fake the twins deaths one by one so it seems less suspicious and then we can act as ourselves. They don’t need to be any the wiser.” Aaron said.

“The grey sides! One of you would act as a grey side, they know nothing about them- it wouldn’t matter how odd you act as long as they don’t know how grey sides tick! We can pretend that the real grey sides are one of the twins creations. They would never know.” 

“So only one of us needs to act as one of the twins. Who would be easiest to act as?” Ata asked.

“Remus. You’d just need to do a bunch of weird sh!t and pour blood on yourself and they wouldn’t know the difference.” Janus said. “Who’s the least squeamish?” 

“Ata.” Aaron said. “The thought of anything being messy makes me want to puke. And then clean it up and go to bed.” 

“Thomas doesn’t have a self organisation bone in his body, so what are you?” Janus asked.

“We’ll all I want him to do is look after himself. Maybe go on a few walks with a friend, draw just for the sake of drawing...” Aaron mused, gazing off into nothing. 

Janus snapped his fingers in front of Aaron’s face. “So you’re Self Care?” 

Aaron tilted his head to the side, smiling. “I guess.”

“And what about you?” Janus turned to the other twin.

“Uhhhhh Indulgence? I think...” Ata supplied.

“Oh that would be so much better as a grey side.” Janus deflated, “You’ll need to pretend to be that, then whenever the time is right you can become your true self.” 

“I can do that.” Aaron said.

Janus sizes the new side up and down, taking in his appearance. “You see this just won’t do, you’re going to have to look like a grey side for it to be realistic. Just morph into a completely monochrome pallet and you’ll be good to go. Oh and you’ll need some type of scarring.”

“Oh but that’s not good! Scarring means someone got hurt, if Thomas got hurt-“

“Not the time for that. It’s just a thing all grey sides have.” 

“Fine.” Aaron morphed into his grey side form, right down to a single grey iris. 

“Great. We don’t have much time, I’ll have to sink you into DeadTown. Just a few more things and I’ll be back for you, Ata. The light sides are called Logic, Morality and Anxiety. You need to go up the fifty second street and down the third to get back here to convince the light sides that Remus is safe and well and that Roman is nowhere to be found. Got it?”

“I think so...”

“Okay great. Three, two, one, let’s go.”


End file.
